E 713 

P882 
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THE COST OF WAR AND WARFARE 

FROM 1898 TO 1905, INCLUSIVE 

TWELVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS 

$1,200,000,000 

STATEMENT COMPILED. COMPUTED. AND PROVED 

FROM THE OFFICIAL REPORTS 

OF THE GOVERNMENT 

FOR EACH FISCAL YEAR ENDING 

JUNE 30TH 



' 



• f\ O b &- 



INTRODUCTION TO THE TREATISES 

ON THE 

COST OF WAR AND WARFARE 

July 4, 1904 

In dealing with the future problem of the disposal of the 
Philippine Islands, the following declaration was made by 
the President of the United States on the nth of April, 
1898: — 

/ " I speak not of forcible annexation, for that cannot be 
thought of. That by our code of morality would be criminal 
aggression." 

Shortly after this declaration the first act of "criminal 
aggression " was committed in the Philippine Islands. I 
then printed three treatises in two pamphlets : — 

I. The Cost of a National Crime. 
II. The Hell of War and its Penalties. 
III. The Criminal Aggression — by whom committed. 

These two pamphlets were presented to the Senate of the 
United States and were ordered to be printed as public docu- 
ments, or Senate documents as they are entitled. A little 
later I mailed eight copies to the Philippine Islands — six of 
them to the principal officers of the United States in Manila, 
and two to the correspondent of a very prominent paper. At 
the same date I asked the Secretary of War to give me the 
addresses of -the volunteer regiments in the Philippine Is- 
lands, who were being held against their will beyond the term 
of their enlistment. On receipt of this letter (to which I 
received no reply) at an informal meeting of the Cabinet, at 



4 INTRODUCTION 

the instance of the Secretary of War, the Postmaster-Gen- 
eral telegraphed orders to the postmaster of San Francisco 
to violate the United States mail, and to take these pam- 
phlets therefrom, which order was fulfilled. 

I had printed two thousand (2000) copies at my own ex- 
pense. When the fact became known that they had been 
taken without authority of law from the mail-bags, great indig- 
nation was expressed, and money began to flow in from every 
quarter. Presently these officers, laying aside the dignity 
of their official positions, submitted to interviews with the 
reporters, in which they conferred upon me the title of 
" Traitor " and threatened arrest. 

It has been the habit of Tories, Autocrats, Slavocrats, and 
Imperialists for two centuries to denounce as traitors all 
men who have stood fast by the principle of liberty and equal 
rights. Under such conditions, the word stands as a title 
of honor ; and when used in such a way as in the present 
case, it vastly increased the influence and circulation of the 
so-called " seditious documents " that had been stolen from 
the United States mail, so that before the end one hundred 
and thirty-two thousand (132,000) copies were printed and 
distributed in this country and in the Philippine Islands. 

In the pamphlet upon " The Cost of a National Crime," a 
deficit of revenue in ratio to the vastly increased expenditure 
was based upon the estimates submitted by the Secretary of 
the Treasury and the expected returns from the McKinley 
tariff and the internal war taxes. The tariff disappointed its 
framers by protecting foreign manufactures and crippling 
our own, leading to a great increase of dutiable imports, and 
to an unexpected amount of revenue. The huge demand for 
exports which also soon ensued made necessary a much 
greater import of goods as a means of payment. The antici- 
pation of a deficit was not justified ; all the other predictions 
in the three pamphlets of vastly increased expenditure had 
been more than justified. The evidence is now put in a per- 
manent form or record in this book, having previously been 
put before the public in pamphlet form. 



INTRODUCTION 5 

The prediction of ghastly penalties of loathsome disease 
has been justified, and the evidence is to be found in the 
reports of the Surgeon-General of the United States. The 
record of devastation, rapine, arson, and murder committed 
during the " criminal aggression " upon the people of the 
Philippine Islands stands on unimpeachable testimony in the 
annals of the last six years. 

The cost of this temporary aberration toward imperialism 
and militarism is increasing. 

The end is not yet, but it may be very near. The moral 
sense of the Nation, always slow to be moved, but resistless 
when once aroused, is beginning to act. The imperative de- 
mand is now being made to do what may be done speedily, 
to right the wrongs that have been committed, and to grant 
to the people of the Philippine Islands their liberty and their 
right to frame their own system of government by consent 
of the governed. With this demand is also an imperative 
order to the executive officers of the Nation to cease to dis- 
regard the Bill of Rights which is embodied in the Declara- 
tion of Independence, and to administer the law under the 
provisions of the Constitution of the United States, with an 
equally imperative order to remove the burden of excessive 
taxation from this Nation which has been incurred during 
the last six years. 

The Fourth of July, 1904. 



COST OF WAR AND WARFARE 
FISCAL YEARS ENDING JUNE 30, 1898 

TO JUNE 30, 1905, INCLUSIVE 
TWELVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS 

$1,200,000,000 

THIRD COMPILATION COMPUTED AND PROVED 

FROM THE OFFICIAL REPORTS 

OF THE GOVERNMENT 

JULY, 1904 



THE COST OF WAR AND WARFARE 



THIRD COMPILATION 

COMPUTED AND PROVED FROM THE OFFICIAL 
REPORTS OF THE GOVERNMENT TO JULY, 1904 
ON APPROPRIATIONS TO JUNE 3 o, 1905 



On the 4th of July, 1902, I published an analysis of the ex- 
penditures of the United States for twenty (20) years of 
peace, order, and industry, including the fiscal years ending 
June 30, 1878, to June 30, 1897, inclusive. This term covered 
the well-conducted and economic administrations of Presi- 
dents Hayes, Arthur, and Cleveland (first term), the rela- 
tively heavy cost of the term of President Harrison, and the 
lessening cost under President Cleveland (second term). 

In that period the total expenditures for the support of 
the civil service, the army, and the navy, including the con- 
struction of the new navy, so-called, begun in President 
Cleveland's first term, and including interest and pensions, 
amounted to the sum of $5,935,361,336. This established 
an average normal rate of five dollars ($5) per head during 
that period of peace, order, and industry covering twenty 
(20) years. Except for the sudden very large increase in 
pensions under President Harrison's administration, the nor- 
mal rate would have been less. The lowest average cost of 
government was attained in President Cleveland's first term ; 
it averaged $4.43 per head. It would be suitable to establish 
that sum as the normal standard of the cost of government 
economically administered, including the first cost of the 
" new navy," so-called, which was adequate for all purposes 
of national defense, and which was all in service at the be- 
ginning of the war with Spain. Taking five dollars (S5) as 



io COST OF WAR AND WARFARE 

a normal rate, the average cost of each department during 
this period was as follows : — 

Civil and Judicial Service, Indian Department 

and Postal Deficiency $1.48 

Maintenance of the Army jc 

Maintenance and Construction of the New Navy .35 

Interest on the National Debt go 

Pensions i.r 2 

Total $ 5 .oo 

the normal cost of government and the interest and pensions 
being divided on practically equal terms — $2.50 per head. 

The revenue derived from liquors and tobacco, domestic 
and foreign, during this period, sufficed to cover the expendi- 
tures of the civil and judicial service, the postal deficiency, the 
army, and the navy. The revenue required to pay interest 
and pensions was derived from taxes upon imports other than 
liquors and tobacco, with some small internal taxes added. 

These facts establish a normal rate of expenditure for the 
support of the government economically administered on the 
basis of $4. 50 per head at the standard of the sane and ex- 
cellent administrations of President Hayes and President 
Cleveland in his first term, or at the standard of five dol- 
lars ($5) per head for the whole term of twenty (20) years 
under five administrations. 

With this analysis I submitted the proof that the cost of 
the war with Spain and of the warfare upon the people of 
the Philippine Islands from June 30, 1898, to June 30, 1902, 
had been seven hundred million dollars ($700,000,000). The 
cost of the war with Spain has never been separated offi- 
cially. It is commonly estimated at not exceeding three 
hundred million dollars ($300,000,000). That sum was de- 
rived from additional war taxes on liquors and tobacco and 
the stamp tax. The war with Spain has been paid for through 
the war taxes now repealed. 

On the 26th of January, 1904, I again published an analy- 
sis of the expenditures for the year 1903, with an estimate 



THIRD COMPILATION n 

continued to June 30, 1904, based upon official figures. I 
then proved that on the 30th of June, 1904, the cost of war 
and warfare for seven years would prove to have been one 
thousand million dollars ($1,000,000,000) in excess of the 
normal cost of supporting the government of the United 
States during the previous twenty (20) years at the rate of 
five dollars ($5) per head. In that estimate I computed the 
probable expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 
1904, at an average rate of $6.35. The actual expenditures 
now published prove to have been at the rate of $6.50 per 
head, with a deficiency of twenty-five million dollars ($25,- 
000,000) carried over to the present fiscal year. My compu- 
tation that the cost of war and warfare to June 30, 1904, 
would prove to be one thousand million dollars (#1.000,000,- 
000) was an underestimate. It very nearly reached the sum 
of ten hundred and forty million dollars (1,040,000,000). 

The end is not yet. It is not yet possible to get a state- 
ment of the appropriations made by the fifty-eighth Con- 
gress for the present fiscal year ending June 30, 1905, in 
such form as to be able to divide the appropriations suitably 
among the several departments. Every effort was made to cut 
down these appropriations and to make a show of economy. 
For instance, the customary appropriation for the improve- 
ment of rivers and harbors was wholly omitted ; appropria- 
tions for many much needed public buildings were not made. 
The expenditures of rivers and harbors are, however, being 
continued under former appropriations ; contracts previously 
made for public buildings and works are being completed ; 
contracts previously made for battleships, cruisers, and forti- 
fications may or may not be fully covered by the lessened 
appropriations for the army and navy. Other contracts are 
authorized that may be entered into, especially in the navy 
department, for which no appropriations have been made. 
The expenditures are therefore continuing, and the excess 
above appropriations will be covered by a deficiency bill into 
the next fiscal year. 

On the other hand, the appropriations for pensions and 



12 COST OF WAR AND WARFARE 

interest require a lessening amount. The call for pensions, 
in spite of the increase due to the Spanish war, is reduced to 
one hundred and thirty-eight million dollars ($138,000,000) ; 
the interest charge will not exceed twenty-four million dol- 
lars ($24,000,000), making a total of one hundred and sixty- 
two million dollars ($162,000,000). This will be distributed 
per capita on a computed population June 30, 1905, as eighty- 
three million four hundred thousand (83,400,000), or at a 
rate of $1.94 per head, as compared to the rate of $2.52 dur- 
ing President Harrison's term. The burden of Civil War pen- 
sions will rapidly diminish by lapse of time, and will be yet 
more diminished per capita with the increase in population. 
The total appropriations made by the last Congress, in- 
cluding pensions and interest, amount to five hundred and 
four million dollars ($504,000,000), which would be at the 
rate of six dollars ($6) per head, if the appropriation covered 
the whole probable expenditure ; but with the expenditures 
now going on under former appropriations upon rivers and 
harbors, contracts for public works, battleships, and the 
like, there is no reasonable expectation that the per capita 
expenditure of the present fiscal year ending June 30, 1905, 
will be less than $6.50 per head. At the standard of the 
twenty (20) years preceding the Spanish war, deducting the 
falling in of pensions and the lessened charges for interest, 
the cost of government, army, and navy during the present 
fiscal year would not have exceeded $4.30 per head, or at 
the standard established by President Hayes and President 
Cleveland in his first term, the cost during the present year 
would have been less than four dollars ($4) per head. If the 
expenditures do not exceed $6.50 per head, the cost of mili- 
tarism, imperialism, and warfare during the present year will 
exceed one hundred and sixty million dollars ($160,000,000), 
which, added to the previous cost of a little less than ten 
hundred and forty million dollars ($1,040,000,000), will bring 
the total waste on war and warfare, militarism and imperialism, 
to the sum of twelve hundred million dollars ($1,200,000,000) 
by the 30th of June, 1905. 



THIRD C0MPILA1 I 13 

Such are the facts developed by a judicial analysis of the 

official figures supplied by the different departments of the 
United States Government. That sum measures the penalty 
in money which has been put upon the tax-payers and there- 
fore upon the great body of the consumers of this country. 
That is the penalty stated in terms of money for permitting 
the power of the government to be perverted, after the lib- 
eration and the establishment of independence in Cuba, to 
the conquest and subjugation of the people of the Philippine 
Islands, and to the effort to impose upon an alien people 
an arbitrary rule without their consent. This effort to graft 
imperialism upon a Democratic community by the executive 
officers of the government has been carried out under the 
barbarity of militarism by devastation, rapine, and ruin over 
wide districts under the pretext of benevolent assimilation. 
Not until the people of the Philippine Islands had been com- 
pletely subjugated did any relief come. Since then, under 
the efficient direction of Governor Taft and his successor, 
supported by many United States officers of the highest re- 
pute and character, an effort has been made to redress these 
wrongs ; but as yet no regard has been given to the Will of 
the people of these islands. The}- are governed without their 
consent ; deprived of trial by jury, of the right of the Habeas 
Corpus ; deprived of their property without due process of 
law, and governed through executive authority without regard 
to the principle of liberty incorporated in the Declaration of 
Independence of the United States and embodied in the 
Constitution. 

Returning to the burden upon the tax-payers of the 
United States, which will have been twelve hundred million 
dollars ($1,200,000,000) on the 30th of June, 1905, it now 
becomes expedient to measure that burden, to distribute it, 
and to count the cost to each average family of five persons 
in this country, upon whom this oppression now falls with 
crushing effect in the time of high prices, lessening wages, 
lack of employment, and future uncertainty. 

In order to make this comparison, two computations will 



14 COST OF WAR AND WARFARE 

be made : one by the comparison with the normal rate of 
five dollars ($5) per head established on a record of twenty 
(20) years ; the other on a normal rate of $4.50 per head es- 
tablished during the sane and safe administrations of Presi- 
dent Arthur and President Cleveland in his first term. The 
burden will be measured by comparison on this basis, and as 
the cost would now be with the falling in of pensions and 
interest and the cost as it has been during the eight years of 
war, warfare, militarism, and imperialism. 

If we accept as a normal standard of the cost of conduct- 
ing the United States Government in time of peace, order, 
and industry the average of five dollars ($5) per head, which 
was established during the twenty (20) years preceding the 
Spanish war, it then proves that in the succeeding eight 
years of war and warfare during the two terms of President 
McKinley and President Roosevelt we shall have expended 
over twelve hundred million dollars ($1,200,000,000), at an 
average rate of one hundred and fifty million dollars ($150,- 
000,000) a year. The average population of the country dur- 
ing that period has been somewhat in excess of seventy-five 
million (75,000,000) persons ; the average expenditure per 
capita has therefore been two dollars per head, or sixteen 
dollars ($16) for the whole term. The proportion borne by 
each head of a family of five, or by each two persons sup- 
porting three others, was therefore eighty dollars ($80) in 
the excess of taxes which the government received into 
the treasury. The excess of taxes under the McKinley and 
Dingley bill, which the consumers paid, but which the gov- 
ernment did not receive, will be treated later. 

If, on the other hand, it would be fair and just to take as 
a normal standard the average rate during President Cleve- 
land's first term, when a considerable part of the expenditure 
for the new navy was made, which was less than four dollars 
and a half ($4.50) a head, coupled with the expenditures of 
the sane and safe administration of President Arthur, which 
was a little over four dollars and a half ($4.50) per head, we 
may establish the normal standard of peace, order, and indus- 



THIRD COMPILATION 15 

try, with ample preparation for the defense of the country, 
at four dollars and a half ($4.50) a head. On this basis the 
waste in war and warfare of the past eight years has been 
fifteen hundred million dollars ($1,500,000,000), from which 
we may deduct three hundred million dollars ($300,000,000) 
for the cost of the Spanish war, leaving twelve hundred mil- 
lion dollars ($1,200,000,000) again as the price paid for over- 
sea expansion and the warfare upon the people of the Philip- 
pine Islands. At the rate of fifteen hundred million dollars 
($1,500,000,000), the average charge per head of the popula- 
tion during the last eight years has been two dollars and a 
half ($2.50), or twelve dollars and a half ($12.50) upon the 
head of each family, or each two persons supporting three 
others, and for the whole term of eight years one hundred 
dollars ($100). 

These facts and figures cannot be too often repeated. I 
therefore submit a 

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 

Had this sum been saved and put year by year into a 
savings bank at four per cent., the amount which each family 
has contributed at ten dollars (Sio) per head would be in- 
creased from eighty dollars ($80) to $92.80, or from one 
hundred dollars ($100) to one hundred and sixteen dollars 
($116). 

This burden was lightly borne during the larger part of 
this period ; but these conditions, coupled with the burden 
of the tariff for protection with incidental revenue, have 
culminated at the present time in high prices for almost all 
the necessaries of life, diminished consumption followed by 
the diminished production of many great staples, lessened 
wages, large numbers of persons without employment, and 
other conditions which are now so apparent. Had this huge 
sum, far more than equal to the bonded debt of the United 
States now outstanding, been saved, the present adverse 
conditions might have been avoided ; or if not, and the cus- 



i6 COST OF WAR AND WARFARE 

tomary depression which comes around about once in ten 
years had come, this sum added to the savings of the masses 
of the consumers would certainly have tided over the period 
of depression. 

One hundred and fifty million dollars ($150,000,000) a 
year expended for destructive purposes represents the waste 
of the labor of three hundred thousand (300,000) men year 
by year at five hundred dollars ($500) each, which under 
other conditions would have been applied to the constructive 
purposes of peace, order, and industry. 

There is a large addition to be made to this charge which 
the people have paid in taxes, and which the government has 
received and expended on war and warfare, of the amount of 
taxes that the people have paid under the tariff for protec- 
tion with incidental revenue, by which a small fraction of 
the producers of this country have been enabled to charge 
to the consumers of this country a much higher price for 
food, fibres, and fabrics of various kinds than they sell such 
goods for to export to foreign countries. 

It is difficult to make any exact computation of this addi- 
tional burden. It is not denied by any advocate of this sys- 
tem that its purpose is to enable the iron masters, wool 
growers, and the representatives of a few arts to obtain a 
higher price for their goods than they would get if foreign 
products of like kind were free of duty. This subsidy to a 
privileged class of course varies from year to year under the 
varying conditions of trade. During the ten years ending 
18S9 inclusive, the iron and steel masters secured not less 
than sixty million dollars ($60,000,000) a year, or about one 
dollar ($1) per head of the population in excess of the price 
at which the British and German iron masters supplied for- 
eign consumers. 

In 1890 the domestic production had so increased, and the 
cost of production had been so lessened, that the price of 
crude iron and steel, still yielding a profit to the iron mas- 
ters, fell to a parity or below the foreign prices ; the tariff 
became inoperative ; and when the vast body of consumers 



THIRD COMPILATION 17 

of crude iron and steel in this country were enabled to ob- 
tain their crude material on even terms with their foreign 
competitors, we began to export the higher products of 
metallurgy of every kind to every market in the world. Pre- 
sently the vastly increased consumption again carried the 
price up to a point at which the iron and steel masters of 
the country could again tax the consumers ; the export of ma- 
chinery and tools began to fall off, and the iron and steel 
masters were enabled, and are now enabled, to maintain the 
prices to home consumers by exporting their surplus to the 
foreign competitors in shipbuilding machinery, and the like, 
at a much lower price than they charge to domestic con- 
sumers. 

The excessive price which the masses of consumers are 
now paying on their woolen and worsted clothing, in order 
that the owners of what are called the " Hoofed Locusts " of 
the Northwest may tax them, cannot be computed at less 
than twenty-five (25) cents per head of the population. The 
figures prove that ; and if this analysis be extended over 
fish, potatoes, hay, beef, lumber, sugar, and all the other 
necessaries and comforts of life, it will be very difficult for 
any one to reach any other conclusion than that the taxes 
which the people pay to these privileged classes, who form 
but a very small fraction of the industrial population, cannot 
be less than one dollar ($1) per head, or seventy-five million 
dollars ($75,000,000) a year, or for the eight years six hun- 
dred million dollars ($600,000,000). In fact, if any one will 
go through the figures and facts which have been presented 
in other parts of this volume, they will be more likely to 
conclude that the taxes which the people have paid directly 
to the government, and which the government has received 
and expended in war and warfare, have been accompanied 
by an equal tax which the government has not received, but 
which has been the cost of the tariff warfare upon other 
countries by way of which ninety-five (95) to ninety-six (96) 
consumers in every hundred (100) are taxed in order to en- 
able the representatives of four or five. per cent, of the pro- 



18 COST OF WAR AND WARFARE 

ducers to secure the assumed benefit or profit from the con- 
version of this tax to their own benefit, in this way doubling 
the burden upon the war and obstructing the export, espe- 
cially of our excess or surplus of farm products to foreign 
countries, by taxing the goods which are the only means of 
payment that can be returned in exchange for these exports. 

I submit this final estimate of the cost of war and war- 
fare for further analysis, and invite any exception that can 
be taken to the reasoning on which it has been developed. 
The only exception that I have been able to draw from any 
critic has been that in this period of eight years the United 
States Government has assumed certain expenditures that 
did not prevail in the former period, naming only the irriga- 
tion of arid lands. That is admitted ; but as yet so small an 
amount has been expended for this purpose that it would not 
change the figures by a fraction of a cent. Moreover, this is 
a productive expenditure, to be recovered from the soils of 
the irrigated land. 

If any one can find an error, a misapplication of the offi- 
cial figures, or a fault in my method of presenting the case, 
no one could be more ready to amend and correct these 
statements than I shall be ; and I will close this series of 
essays with the motto on the title-page, " Figures never lie 
unless liars make figures." 

A few words may now be given to a forecast of the future 
conditions. It may now be assumed that the temporary 
aberration toward militarism and imperialism, coupled with 
the assumption of arbitrary power by the executive, is now 
passing by and has been condemned. A change will come 
with whatever executive the next Congress may conduct 
the powers of government, and in the next few years. At 
a very early date the rights of the people of the Philippine 
Islands will be restored to them, and the effort to conduct 
the executive functions of this government in disregard of 
the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution in 
which the principles of that Declaration are embodied will 
be ended. 



THIRD COMPILATION 19 

The expenditures of the government, including all the 
armament that may be required for national defense against 
predatory powers, will have been brought down to the stand- 
ard which was established before the war with Spain. The 
cost of the civil, military, and naval "service will not exceed 
two dollars and a half ($2.50) per head of the population, 
which during the term of the next administration will pass 
the number of ninety million (90,000,000) ; the money re- 
quired to meet that normal rate of cost will again be derived 
wholly from the taxes imposed upon liquors and tobacco, 
domestic and foreign. The interest on the national debt 
will be less than twenty-five (25) cents per head. The pen- 
sion roll, before the end of the next term, may be one dollar, 
probably not exceeding seventy-five (75) cents per head. 
That sum and more will be derived from taxes on the 
import of luxuries and upon articles of voluntary use. All 
the taxes upon articles of food and the materials of foreign 
origin which are necessary in the conduct of our domestic 
industry will have been removed. 

We shall then enter into competition with the manufac- 
turing states of Europe on even terms or better in the cost 
of all material. Our exports, in return for the larger import 
of the goods which are the only means of payment, will have 
vastly expanded. When the national taxes and expenditures 
have been reduced to four dollars ($4) per head or less, the 
cost of supporting the national government, the army, and 
the navy, and the diminishing charges for interest and pen- 
sions, will be less than one quarter the sum of the same 
charges in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ire- 
land, and in France, and less than one third the same charges 
in Germany and Belgium ; these heavier charges falling upon 
a product far less in ratio to population than that of the 
United States, and entering of necessity by distribution into 
the cost of all their manufactured goods. 

Under these conditions the United States will have as- 
sumed the paramount position in the commerce of the world, 
and will have become the great world power through it? 



20 COST OF WAR AND WARFARE 

exemption from the burden of war debts and of great armies 
and navies. 

There is nothing visionary in this forecast, unless it is vi- 
sionary to expect the voters of this country to apply common 
sense to the conduct of the business department of taxation 
and expenditure of this country through the agency of their 
representatives and senators. 

The danger of the inflation of the depreciated paper cur- 
rency issued during the Civil War for the purpose of collect- 
ing a forced loan was ended by the veto of President Grant. 
The danger of the debasement of the unit of value under 
a force bill, miscalled a free coinage bill, under which an 
effort was made to compel by force of law the acceptance of 
a debased coin in place of the coin promised in the contract, 
was met and defeated by President Grover Cleveland. His 
great courage and service have since been fully sustained 
and recognized. The unit of value of the United States, a 
dollar made of gold, now meets the sole condition of true 
money ; " that coin only is true money which is worth as 
much after it is melted or hammered smooth as it purports 
to be worth in the coin." 

These dangers to the honor and the credit of the country, 
having been met and surmounted, the attention of the coun- 
try and of all thinking people has now been brought to the 
broad fiscal question of revenue and expenditure. Under 
these conditions a true discussion and consideration will 
mark the pending political contest ; and without much re- 
gard to previous party lines which have been loosened on 
both sides, men will be sent to Congress and placed in high 
office who have convictions and who are capable of reason- 
ing ; yet more, who have the courage to maintain their con- 
victions under all conditions. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 

THE PENALTY INCURRED IN EIGHT FISCAL YEARS 
ENDING JUNE 30, 1898, TO JUNE 30, 1905, INCLU- 
SIVE, $1,200,000 

During the twenty years preceding the Spanish war cover- 
ing the fiscal years ending June 30, 1878, to June 30, 1897, 
under five administrations, — three Republican and two De- 
mocratic, — the cost of the government of the United States 
for the support of the civil and judicial service, for the support 
of the army, and for the support of the navy, including the 
construction of the " new navy " so-called, varied but a slight 
fraction over two dollars and a half ($2.50) per head of the 
population in each year. The cost of the pensions and in- 
terest on the public debt per head also varied but a fraction 
over two dollars and a half ($2.50) each year. The cost of 
interest and pensions is now less than two dollars (#2) 
per head, and is steadily diminishing. The total cost of sup- 
porting the government of the United States during the 
twenty years of peace, order, and industrial progress was five 
dollars (£5) per head of the population. That is Standard 
No. 1. 

The cost of supporting the government for the eight fiscal 
years ending June 30, 1882, to June 30, 1889, inclusive, under 
the sane, safe, and prudent administrations of Presidents 
Arthur and Cleveland (first term), including a part of the 
cost of the "new navy" begun under President Cleveland, 
was four dollars and a half ($4.50) per head of the popula- 
tion. That may be named Standard No. 2. 

During the eight years of war and warfare under Presi- 
dents McKinley and Roosevelt, the cost of the government 



22 COST OF WAR AND WARFARE 

has been two dollars per head ($2), on the average per year 
in excess of what it would have been at Standard No. 1, 
and two dollars and a half ($2.50) per head, on the average 
per year in excess of what it would have been at Standard 
No. 2. 

The excess of expenditure on war and warfare 

over Standard No. 1, during the eight years 

named, has been over $1,200,000,000 

The excess of expenditure on war and warfare 

over Standard No. 2, during the eight years 

named, has been over $1,500,000,000 

Who Pays this Tax? 

A small part of the taxes are derived from duties on the 
import of articles of luxury and voluntary use ; the greater 
part of the taxes collected under the Internal Revenue Act 
and under the tariff are imposed upon articles of common 
consumption by the whole body of consumers. They are im- 
posed on tobacco, beer, spirits, coal, iron, steel, copper, lum- 
ber, sugar, beef, potatoes, hay, leather, fish, oats, oatmeal, 
and other of the necessaries and comforts of life. In addition 
to the taxes on these articles of necessary consumption which 
the people pay and which the government receives, a heavy 
additional tax is imposed through the duties on imports which 
the consumers pay, but which the government does not re- 
ceive. This tax imposed for the declared purpose of " pro- 
tection with incidental revenue " increases the cost of a large 
portion of the necessary articles of consumption, both do- 
mestic and foreign. It is collected indirectly by the owners 
and managers of the works in which are manufactured oil, 
steel, sugar, tobacco, matches, or in which beef and pork are 
packed, or crude timber converted into lumber. These taxes 
are also collected indirectly by the owners of the ore deposits, 
of the timber land, of the borax deposits, of the " Hoofed 
Locusts," of the fishing-smacks on the seaboard, and the like. 
Under this Act they have been and are now enabled to put 
high prices on their products which are sold for home con- 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 23 

sumption, and to sell for export to foreign countries at much 
lower prices. 

It now becomes fit to measure these taxes. What does 
War and Warfare, Imperialism, Over-sea Expansion, and Pro- 
tection with Incidental Revenue cost each person or each 
family, and how is this penalty distributed ? 

Relative cost in figures and appropriations to each person 

at Standard No. 1 . . $16 
at '• No. 2 . . $20 

Penalty paid by the head of each family of five or by each 
two persons who sustain themselves and three others 

at Standard No. 1 . . $So 
at " No. 2 . . $100 

Had these sums not been taken from consumers for the 
purposes of war and warfare, they might have been depos- 
ited in a savings bank at an average of 4//0 interest year by 
year for eight years. The saving would have been four years' 
interest at 4/0 

at Standard No. 1 . . $12.80 
at " No. 2 . . $16.00 

The consumption of the people of the North and West 
is much larger than that of the people of the South, where 
eight million (8,000,000) negroes of low purchasing power 
constitute so large a part of the population. 

Additional penalty paid by the consumers in the North 
and West on an estimate of 20^ excess would be 

at Standard No. 1 . . $16 

at " No. 2 . . $20 

A very low estimate of the tax which the people have paid 
but which the government has not received, secured by the 
privileged classes under the tariff for " protection with in- 
cidental revenue," would be 

for each year per head $1 

for five years for each group of five persons, $40 



24 COST OF WAR AND WARFARE 

At these estimates the total penalty paid by each group 
of five persons during eight years of war and warfare up to 
June 30, 1905, by actual expenditures and appropriations 

at Standard No. 1 . . $148.80 
at " No. 2 . . $176 

The head of a family, consisting of five persons, living in 
the North or West, in receipt of an annual income of from 
ten to fifteen hundred dollars ($1000 to $1500), with ex- 
penditures corresponding to the average expenditures of 
artisans, craftsmen, book-keepers, clerks, and others, may 
reasonably compute his share of this assessment of taxes, 
direct and indirect, under the foregoing conditions at two 
hundred dollars ($200) for the past eight years. 

From the Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury 
for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, and the official 
statement of the expenditures of the last fiscal year and 
the appropriations for the present year, it proves that the 
expenditures in the War and Navy Departments annu- 
ally under the administrations of Presidents McKinley and 
Roosevelt for eight years of war and warfare and over-sea 
expansion will have been sixteen hundred and twenty-five 

million $1,625,000,000 

The expenditures under the sane and safe 
administrations of Presidents Arthur and 
Cleveland, 1882 to 1889, for army and navy 
fully developed for purposes of national de- 
fense and for beginning the construction of 
the "new navy," amounted to four hundred 

and sixty-two million 462,000,000 

The difference of eleven hundred and sixty- 
three million $1,163,000,000 

constitutes the greater part of the excessive expenditures on 
war and warfare which are tending to increase rather than to 
diminish. 

The revenue to pay the penalty measured as above has 
been derived wholly from taxes on the necessaries and com- 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 25 

forts of life, and on the crude materials of foreign origin 
which are necessary in the processes of domestic industry. 

The question to be decided by the voters of this country 
in November is whether or not to redress the Brown Man's 
Wrongs, and whether or not to remove the White Man's 
Burden. 

Some objections have been taken to my previous publi- 
cations on War and Warfare in respect to the per capita 
method, and also on the ground that the government now 
undertakes some functions on which money is expended that 
did not form a part of the expenditures in former days. The 
only subject named has been irrigation. These additional 
expenditures are very recent, and as yet have not added in 
amount a sufficient sum to make any material variation in 
the per capita results. There might well be an additional ex- 
penditure in the civil service for the more adequate compen- 
sation of many public officers, especially of the Cabinet, and 
in the consular service. The expenditure on the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture for the Agricultural Experiment Stations 
might well be doubled, and that expenditure could be doubled 
by adding less than the cost of a single battleship. 

With regard to the per capita method of computing cost, 
it appears that the cost of the civil and judicial service, or 
public buildings used in the civil service and all that belongs 
to that department, has been very welcome for a long period 
of years, increasing with the increase of population in about 
the same proportion down to 1898. The expenditures in 
that department since that date show a moderate increase. 

In respect to interest and pensions similar conditions ex- 
isted for many years : the interest on the debt first standing 
at the largest sum per capita, the pensions less, changing 
gradually until the pension expenditure per capita reached 
its highest point under President Harrison, and is now di- 
minishing, while the interest has been very greatly reduced. 

The expenditures for the army and the navy during the 
twenty years preceding the Spanish W 7 ar varied in small 
measure, increasing in President Cleveland's first term, when 



26 COST OF WAR AND WARFARE 

the construction of the new navy was entered upon, and then 
remaining substantially uniform to the end of Cleveland's 
second term. The enormous increase in the per capita ex- 
penditure during the last eight years of war and warfare has 
been almost wholly on the army and the navy. 

It may, however, be instructive to submit the figures of 
the aggregate expenditure for three periods of eight years 
each, for the specific support of the civil and judicial service, 
and public buildings other than fortifications : for the army 
and armaments, for the navy and naval construction, for the 
interest on the public debt, and for pensions, omitting extra- 
neous subjects like the premiums paid on the purchase of 
bonds in the reduction of the public debt, the refund to direct 
taxes, the purchase of the Panama Canal. These are tabu- 
lated in the Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, 
for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903. To those tables I 
have added from official figures the expenditures of the last 
fiscal year and the rather low and probably insufficient appro- 
priations for the present fiscal year ending June 30, 1905. 

The total expenditures during the four years of the Civil 
War and the four subsequent years of reconstruction, fiscal 
years, June 30, 1862, to June 30, 1869, inclusive, were a small 
fraction over four thousand nine hundred million dollars 
($4,900,000,000), stated in dollars in the Treasury Report. 
But it must be observed that all the supplies, armaments, 
and construction of vessels during that period were paid in 
the depreciated paper money, the issue of which caused a very 
great advance in prices. Many years since I made a close 
estimate of the additional cost of the Civil War which could 
be attributed to the depreciation of the legal tender notes. 
I made it out about one thousand million dollars ($1,000,- 
000,000). On a very conservative estimate we may deduct 
from the gross sum of the expenditures during the Civil 
War and the period of reconstruction seven hundred million 
dollars ($700,000,000), bringing the total cost on a gold basis 
to forty-two hundred million dollars (§4,200,000,000). 

The expenditures for the same specific purposes for the 









SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 27 

eight years of war and warfare, June 30, 1898, to June 30, 
1905, on actual figures and appropriations, will have been 
the same sum, namely, forty-two hundred million dollars 
($4,200,000,000). 

It will be interesting to compare these gross expenditures 
with those for the same specific purposes during the admin- 
istration of President Arthur and of President Cleveland in 
his first term, for the fiscal years, June 30, 1882, to June 30, 
1889, inclusive, in which period they were a fraction under 
twenty-one hundred million dollars ($2,100,000,000) ; this 
sum sufficed to meet civil and judicial expenditures, improve- 
ment of harbors and rivers, and public buildings other than 
fortifications, in an adequate manner ; also the sum sufficient 
for all purposes of army and navy required for defensive 
purposes including a part of the cost of the new navy. The 
specific excess of expenditure during the last eight years 
upon armaments, as compared to the two administrations 
of Arthur and Cleveland, has already been stated, $1,163,- 
000,000. 

All the facts and figures which are given in this condensed 
statement have been derived from the official reports of the 
government. All have been justified and proved. The cita- 
tions of the reports and the detailed figures of each year will 
be found in my book about to be published at my own cost 
by Houghton, Mifflin & Company, Boston, Mass., entitled 
" Facts and Figures." 

Note. The volume referred to in the text of this pamphlet is " Facts and 
Figures," about to be published, of which this document forms a part. 

EDWARD ATKINSON, LL. D. 

Brookline, Mass., U. S. A., 
July, 1904. 



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